Festival Spotlight: La Nature

At Delayed we grew fond of La Nature Festival - what’s not to love about a well curated festival nestled in a hilly, whimsical forest. A forest perfect for side and main quests, exploring mysterious light objects and a wide range of sounds, art and workshops. Our very own Aspetuck played at their 15th birthday edition, alongside many of our friends. Our heart warms remembering the beautiful moments shared and sitting on that lush meadow overlooking the Belgian Ardennes. While the lineup of this year’s edition remains once more under seal, the team announced the curators. La Nature's programming is shared across a constellation of labels, collectives and artists - who all contribute to several stages, day time programming, art and installations.

Leading up to its 16th edition, we caught up with Julien Baratto, one of the festival’s curators. 

Hi Julien, we are very happy about this interview. Part of our delayed team was at last year's edition and we loved the care and curation within this stunning location. But before we dive in deeper into that, I'm curious to know how LaNature was conceived?

It's a long story, but in a few words: La Nature grew from the ashes of NoName Festival, which ran in my home village between 2010 and 2017. A lot of highs and lows, trial and error, before finally launching this project with a team that was, and has become, a real family.

At its core, this project is a dream, organizing a festival in nature, a genuine passion for electronic music, and a series of exceptional encounters. La Nature is the fruit of a collective expression, and it keeps evolving.

photos by Margot Lavigne & Juliette Viole

As a not-for-profit organization, the festival faces its own challenges, especially within a region that is known for hiking and a bit away from the buzz in Brussels or the huge festivals. How much support do you experience  from the region,what are the main ‘blockers' and what support would be important for the upcoming years?

One of our core motivations behind this project was to bring real cultural value to a rural area. Several of us grew up in small villages where the only cultural offer was regional folklore - no innovative artistic projects, no connection to what the wider world had to offer. You always had to travel to the city to discover that.

In the past, defending that idea and finding support wasn't always straightforward. But since establishing La Nature in the Commune of Vielsalm, on an ADEPS site, we've had genuine backing from them, they've made the whole thing significantly more achievable.

That said, some friction remains, things we have to work through every year. Mainly around perception, how certain people picture our event and the risks they associate with it. But we put serious effort into addressing those concerns, through meaningful investment in our Care Team, sustainability practices, and local and social engagement.

Belgium has an extremely dense “festival market” with probably over 70 events in 2026 - this alone brings up several challenges in booking policy, logistics - yet the event was sold out without even an announced lineup. Congratulations!

Thank you! I have to admit I wasn't expecting such an intense reaction for the 2026 ticket sale. Last year we already sold out a couple of months in advance, and I had mentally prepared myself for it to take longer this time around. Yet after just over a month, it was done.

We're genuinely humbled by that response, it represents a real level of trust, and it motivates us beyond words. The whole team gives everything, ten months of the year, to put together the most beautiful gathering we can.

photos by César Burton & Margot Lavigne

Over the last years, you worked with themes - such as the theme of “Metamorphosis” in 2025. This year marks the beginning of a new chapter - you will be working with a manifesto.

Tell us more about why and the key messages of the manifesto.

Introducing an annual theme was a significant moment for the festival and the team, it came at a time when the festival was in full growth. Those themes gave us a purpose, a framework for expression. After all these years, with every part of the team bringing enormous creativity to the table, it became clear that certain key elements were emerging from the work we'd built together.

I think now, in the minds of the team members, and hopefully the audience too, a sense of artistic direction exists. Strongly connected to nature, obviously, to the music scene that has always been close to our hearts, and rooted in the specific place we inhabit.

The manifesto came about very simply, from a conversation with the team during our annual gathering in autumn 2025. As we started putting words on paper, we realized that La Nature was just there, already.

Part of it is “Less is more”. How does that reflect in the music and arts curation in this 2026 edition?

Less is more has influenced us for a long time, in our communication, our scenographic choices, our curation. Despite a dense programme across four days, we focus on the simple things. Fewer artists, but more time per set, choices that prioritize overall coherence over a list of names. A scenography that steps back from the site rather than competing with it. Communication that refuses constant escalation and endless teasing. And a format with a deliberately limited capacity, not as a constraint, but to preserve the quality of the experience for everyone. Nature already does the work. Our role is to not overdo it.

You decided to not announce any lineups, but the curators instead, even after ticket sales. Responses to that vary - some love that approach, some say such an approach doesn't allow newer artists to be seen, as showing up on lineups can be critical for their career. What are your thoughts behind this?

The secret lineup in 2025 was primarily motivated by celebrating the 15th anniversary of our core collective, NoName. I'll admit it was also a bit of a curator's fantasy.

What it allowed us to understand was the weight and power of that approach. Not only does it reshuffle the deck and challenge the excessive one-upmanship around lineups in the festival world, it also deepens the sense of community, I think.

Every artist played along, and none of them had any issue with it. And the lineup does get revealed, just on a delay. In the end, the audience response to the post-festival announcement was just as strong, if not stronger, than it would have been beforehand. So I think any artist appearing on the bill can still fully leverage that visibility.

I know you can't share anything about the lineup BUT of course we’d love a bit more about this year’s programme. You created a playlist for us that should give a little glimpse into the overall curation. Any words you want to share alongside the playlist? 

To play the game with you, but without giving everything away at once, I'm sharing a playlist of my favorite artists and tracks from the past few months. Some of these artists may be on this year's bill, but not all of them, otherwise it would be too easy :-).